The blog search feature, which launched in 2005, had up until recently failed to show results for Google, with the search engine claiming less than 1 percent of the total blog search market.
In October, the search engine giant put the blog search service at the center of its virtual universe with a link to the floundering feature on the main page.
Hitwise research director LeeAnne Prescott said the move worked because “Google knows the power of its main website,” to direct traffic.
At year’s end, Hitwise reported that Google had garnered 25 percent of the blog search market, replacing Technorati, which had long been the established leader among bloggers.
“We have enormous respect for the guys at Google,” Technorati CEO David Sifry said. “It just shows you how much power Google wields; all they have to do is turn on a link like that.”
A Google spokesman said the company sees its blog search as a key to further developing the Internet brand and helping the company to expand into new, fast-growing and lucrative online sectors.
While Google is now No. 1 in blog searches it also got some additional good news from Hitwise, which reported that a third of the users for Google Blog Search were in the coveted 18- to 24-year-old demographic.
